Various communication networks have been created to allow access to various network resources. To improve efficiency and to support mobility, many wireless access enhancements have been added to local, personal, and wide area networks. Based on these enhancements, Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), Personal Area Networks (PANs) and Wide Area Networks (WANs) have been and continue to be utilized by more and more users. For many of these networks, clients associate and communicate wirelessly with access points (APs), which operate as gateways for the wired network. Herein, examples of clients include, but are not limited or restricted to computers, printers, barcode scanners, and phones.
Blacklisting is used in networks to temporarily or permanently prevent a particular client from having access to the network. In some systems, blacklisting is accomplished by blocking access to the network for any wireless client having a particular Media Access Control (MAC) address. Access can be blocked at least temporarily until it is determined that the client is not a threat to the network.
The purpose behind blacklisting is to halt threats imposed by unauthorized clients to the network. However, current techniques to identify clients to be blacklisted are not as effective as they might be in identifying wireless clients that are trying to misuse the network.